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Event Review: Taste of Sydney - Centennial Park - 2014

Taste of Sydney is a yearly event where a variety of well-known, prestigious restaurants and exhibitors come together at Centennial Park. You will literally experience a "taste" of Sydney. There were LOTS of samplers.

There were tickets at the door as per usual, I was smart this time and purchased their early bird tickets from Ticketek (as we all know, Ticketek is studious and often goes the extra mile to charged an additional $5 for printing my own tickets); $35 for 2 general admission tickets. $1 per crown. We bought 60 crowns ($60).

Thunder and storm greeted us upon arrival. Thankfully, the good people at Taste provided everyone with recyclable ponchos! Within an hour, the gloomy weather eased as we continued our food safari.

Aki's Indian Restaurant

Dahi Sev Poori

$6

Crispy wheat pockets with spiced potato and yoghurt. You'll get flavours bursting into your mouth. Hands down, the best dish out of everything we tried. This came 3rd for the best dish... it should be 1st, or at least 2nd..people must've had one too many cocktails when voting for the best dish.

Longrain

Crispy King Prawns with Green Chilli and Lime

$12

First time I've tried green chilli puree. The prawns were tender, but the shell around the prawn's head was quite tough.

Bloodwood

Polenta Chips with Gorgonzola Sauce

$6

I was hesitant with the gorgonzola sauce, but it was well balanced. Such a simple dish, such a hit! Oh, I would like the polenta chips to be a bit more crunchy.

Edible Bug Shop
Pistachio and Chocolate Cricket
Ant Sorbet

$8

My extremely brave, pescatarian boyfriend decided to try some novel delicacies. I wasn't too convinced at the idea of Ant Sorbet... especially since I have a mass ant infestation at home, so I guess it would have been counter intuitive of me spending money to eat Ants when there are so many at home... Am I right?!

As my boyfriend was eating his frozen insects, my curiosity took a bite.. maybe two.. or three... believe it or not it was quite nice. Couldn't really taste the bugs, the cricket was just crunchy and the ants in the sorbet were like a smaller and crunchier version of passionfruit. Don't worry guys, these bugs are farm grade and safe to eat.

Chow Bar & Eating House

Beggar's Chicken

$12

Here we have the Beggar's Chicken with silken lemon tofu and vinegar red peanut. An infamous Chinese dish, the name itself was adapted from ancient Chinese folkore about a beggar roasting a chicken. How do you differentiate a beggar's chicken from a typical chicken? Well, a beggar's chicken is wrapped and roasted in clay.

Voted 1st for the best dish at Taste. To be honest, this didn't quite fulfill the numero uno spot for me. Some of the smaller pieces of the chicken was quite tough and dry. Not enough zest in the lemon tofu. The cabbage and peanuts were nice though. Maybe I didn't receive the quality dish? Or maybe I'm just extra picky?

Propolo

Fregola

$16

Fregola, calamari, cuttlefish ragu, prawns and mussels. My boyfriend got this dish, he said the tomatoes and calamari were the best bits. Otherwise he didn't like it. I personally wasn't too keen on it, mainly because of the fishy after taste... won't be a bad idea to put some ginger in it.

I got this gorgeous little cup cake just for entering a competition ^_^

***Probably a good idea to read before preceding***

We attended a few sessions at Dilmah Chef's Skillery. The first was with head chef Robert Taylor from Swine & Co. As indicated by their restaurant's name, their specialty is pig, especially suckling pig. Robert bought a friend with him, a 9 week old piglet for demonstration.

I was really glad that he bought the pig along, we're entering an age where our meat is so processed and industrialised, we forget where our food comes from. So, I think it's really important for people to see the source of our meat and the form it took before it got onto our plate. We need to acknowledge the fact that we are eating an animal... and not a flavoured cube of soft bits.

The second class we attended was with Peter Ridland, head chef from Jonah's. He introduced us to smoking a piece of cooked salmon with woodchips, tea and a smoke gun. The taste was "smokin"!

And some signature signs and what not from Taste of Sydney. The "Taste" sign bombarded with climbing children as per usual.

We got the same gloomy weather at the Taste of Melbourne. There was mud everywhere! Mmmm edible bugs. Sounds like my kind of dish. ;) I loved the skillery classes, they were so interesting and informative. You are right, we do forget where our food actually comes from. Surprisingly it's so confronting for people when they see a whole pig in front of them like that. My friend squirmed so much during a cutting of a duck. lol- Mary

OMG, it's all so yummy! Except for the pictures of that pig - not so much. :) Love the tiny cupcake and the concept of the classes. We'd have like to have gone, except for a conflict of schedules. I'm now hungry, thanks to your pics!

hey lily! loving the food porn on this post ahha! btw what are crowns? you said you bought 60 of them! the food looks delicious. i wish i knew about this because my boyfriend is a huge foodie he would've loved this!